Dick Durbin: “I have listened, as my friends--and they are my friends--and colleagues have come to the floor to talk about the…”

“I have listened, as my friends--and they are my friends--and colleagues have come to the floor to talk about the Keystone XL Pipeline. It turns out that what America needs more than anything else--more than an increase in the minimum wage, more than paycheck fairness so that men and women are paid fairly in the workplace--more than anything else, we need one more pipeline coming in from Canada. If you listen to the other side, you would think the jobs that will be created by the Keystone XL Pipeline will finally turn this economy around. How many jobs are we talking about? Madam President, 2,000--2,000 construction jobs? That is at the high end of estimates I have heard. How many jobs at the refineries in Texas to process this oil and ship it overseas? It is not for sale in the United States. I am not sure. But it really is amazing to me that they continue to focus on Keystone XL as if it is the only issue when it comes to the American economy. Here is what I find particularly curious. For the record--and I am glad my friend, the Senator from North Dakota, is still in the Chamber--the Keystone XL Pipeline is not the first Keystone Pipeline. The first Keystone Pipeline, from Alberta, came into the United States and ended up in Wood River, IL, at the Conoco refinery. It is shipping Canadian tar sands down to be refined at the Conoco refinery. And then, after it is refined, in a pipeline it is distributed all across the United States.…”